


Dueling Synthesized Banjos

by Sourastherain



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Roommates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-19
Updated: 2014-11-15
Packaged: 2018-01-13 01:36:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1207993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sourastherain/pseuds/Sourastherain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leonard and Spock are college roommates who don't really see eye to eye, especially when it comes down to choices in music.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Leonard hated loud music on the basis that they roomed in the quiet floors for a reason. Both he and his roommate, the ever cool and composed Spock, had full schedules, packed in fact, taking accelerated courses to get out of this as fast as they could with as many specialties as the administration would allow. They both had scientific specialities, Leonard immersed in biology labs and Spock with a preference for astrophysics.

For the most part, they got along well, both studious and dedicated and rather neat and tidy. They were an ideal match. When they didn't speak to each other. Or look at each other.

Or clash in music battles to the death.  
It started when Leonard asked nicely, for him, for Spock to listen to his hipster crap a little lower, but the dig at his preferred music made Spock push his glasses higher up on his nose and narrow his eyes.

"I am not engaging in any behavior that break either the rules of the floor or our agreed upon terms as roommates and I require the ambiance today," he said evenly. And he simply buried his nose back in his textbook. 

Leonard grit his teeth through it for about half an hour, at least half an hour, though Spock argued it was closer to ten minutes and was completely wrong. Then, with a dramatic sigh, he picked up his headphones and turned on something more tolerable, his favorite customized country collection on his laptop, and he turned it up.   
Spock tapped him on the shoulder fifteen minutes later, so he claimed, though Leonard knew it had to have been closer to an hour.

"I can hear your music," his roommate complained. 

"Well, I could hear yours," Leonard huffed. "So we're even."

And that was where it escalated, never beyond what would garner complaints, because neither of them were that immature. It was also between the two of them. An obnoxious mix of indie electronica and twangy bluegrass dueled in their dorm at any given hour while they shot glares more potent than usual at each other. Dubstep made Leonard's eye twitch. Honky tonk made Spock grind his teeth. 

Neither of them finished their homework in the same timely manner and both of them were grudging each night when it came to getting some sleep and stopping the war. Neither of them wanted to give in first, so they slept less and they studied longer while retaining less information. Even Jim Kirk, their friend and study partner from down the hall, avoided them instead of spending hours studying in their room on the floor.

And if Leonard wanted to strangle Spock before, for calling him illogical and for arguing with him about everything, if Leonard wanted to smother him with a pillow and put glue in his shampoo, well, it was nothing on how he felt about his roommate after a week of trying to outlast the other at this game.

He wondered how long it would take for someone to discover that he'd committed a murder in his dorm, and if Spock was a screamer.

No, no, wrong choice of words, he kicked himself and choked on the water from his sports bottle, coughing and flailing only slightly. Leonard felt himself blush, whether from the poor choice of mental wording or from being incapable of drinking water, but he didn't turn around to see if his annoying-as-all-hell roommate cared at all. 

"Are you going to survive?" Spock's voice surprised him, a little louder than he normally spoke to be heard clearly over the two songs entwined through each other while Leonard hacked.

"Yes," he growled, breathing through his nose. "But I'm beginning to doubt you will."

"If you are insinuating that you will resort to physical violence over this feud, Leonard, I would advise against it," Spock retorted.

Leonard couldn't take much more and snapped his laptop shut, finally bringing the cacophony to an end and spun out of his chair. Spock leapt to his feet just as quickly in response, the synthesizer from his own computer continuing to whine and a smirk beginning to cross his lips.

"You get your--" Leonard began, but halted as it happened.

Spock's moment of triumph was cut short as his leg caught on the edge of his desk chair and his arms windmilled spectacularly. In their small dorm, Leonard needed only step forward, quickly reacting on instinct, throwing out his arms and catching his roommate around the waist before he fell. Spock's hand, unfortunately, caught Leonard square in the nose.

"Son of a bitch," he cursed as they toppled to the floor and he saw spots, wet warmth trickling over his lips.

"Hold still," Spock commanded with a note of panic. 

Leonard blinked at him, still rather dazed and still rather annoyed, but the other boy scrambled away for only a moment before he was shoving a handful of kleenex into his hands and guiding them up to his face. 

"This escalated much too far," Spock said quietly.

"Ow," Leonard agreed, belated but an accurate expression of his feelings at the moment. "I don'f fink if's broken, ifs if?"

"I'm sorry?"

"Broken," Leonard repeated and felt along the bridge of his nose with his fingers gingerly.

"Would you like to go to campus health?" Spock asked. He knelt beside Leonard, his hands still gripping his shoulders. 

"No," Leonard said. "S'okay."

He let his eyes fall shut, debating getting up off the floor, but decided against it and let his head fall back against his roommate's bed. A sigh escaped his bloodied, parted lips.

"Alright," Spock said after a moment. He retreated and blessedly a moment later his music finally stopped. God, they were both assholes.

Except, apparently, Spock knew how not to be an asshole. Leonard didn't know what he had expected, but not for a handful of ice wrapped in a few more kleenex a few minutes later to be pressed to his nose ever so gently. 

"Here, let me help," Spock offered and he guided Leonard's hands down. Leonard opened his eyes to see him grimace as he lowered the bloody tissues and tossed them in the trash can, replacing them with more. 

"S'not that bad," Leonard huffed, which was true, it wasn't hurting and had already slowed from the initial bleeding. He rubbed at his lip to clean up a little.

"Your shirt is quite a mess," Spock said. 

"Shit," Leonard let out as he glanced down. "Was my favorite."

That drew a chuckle from his roommate. "I apologize. This became far more childish than I had ever intended."

Leonard nodded and stayed silent as Spock shuffled around to sit beside him. They stayed like that, shoulder to shoulder, exchanging dirty tissues for clean ones until Leonard's nose stopped bleeding. The ice melted enough to let him clean his face and finally he tossed the last wad into the trashcan.

"Well," he said. "That was fun."

"I question your idea of fun," Spock quipped dryly. 

"Yeah, well," Leonard sighed. He turned to look at Spock and found him rather close, realizing that his roommate was actually pressed against his side and studying him, the way he studied his notes and books. "Spock?"

"If I hurt you, please do tell me," Spock murmured, and Leonard frowned at what he could mean for a second before the other boy leaned forward and kissed him. Spock tipped his head to the side and avoided his nose kindly, but he did reach up to cup Leonard's jaw. The touch broke through the surprise of it all, and Leonard got with the program, finding himself kissing back before he decided he wanted to.

Of course, he did want to, he found.

"Oh," Spock said as they both pulled away a few seconds later. "I..."

"Shh, darlin', you'll ruin this by talking, like you always do," Leonard said, and he dipped in to reclaim Spock's lips in a second, more urgent kiss.

"You're--" Spock tried, seemingly torn between kissing and talking. "You're still bloody."

Leonard remedied the situation quickly enough, shedding his stained shirt and tossing it away. That seemed to satisfy Spock enough to kiss him a third time and Leonard made a slightly embarrassing sound as he felt warm fingers trace his bare chest. This was certainly better than a music battle, certainly better than studying and being pissed at each other.

Leonard wasn't sure how long they stupidly sat on the floor, making out sloppily and lazily, but they distantly heard the knock and both let out sharp curses as the door swung open a second after.

"Uh," Jim said, as he stood in the doorway with his eyes wide and curious. "I'm gonna come back later for my notes."


	2. So You're Dating?

"So you guys are dating?" Jim asked, smirking like the little shit he was.

"Nope," Leonard replied and popped the p for extra emphasis.  

"FWB? Wow, I didn't think that was your style, Bones," Jim quipped.  He chewed on the end of his pen with a faux-thoughtful expression.  "He is your type though."

"You're an idiot," Leonard huffed.  "It's not that.  We were just... Kissing.  Doesn't mean either thing.  To be dating you have to go on a date together and to be friends with... ya know, there's gotta be... ya know.  And you gotta be friends."

Jim didn't look convinced, frowning as he stared at Leonard and seemed to consider him.  "Do you want to date him?  Or the other thing?" he asked finally, hitting the nail on the head.

"We fight all the time, he's a robot," Leonard mumbled.  "He almost broke my damn nose and he's got the worst taste in music."  He bit the inside of his cheek for a second.  "I don't think it'd work out.  I mean, it just happened.  Not like it'll happen again."

"He watches you sometimes when you're not paying attention," Jim said, shaking his head.  "Bones, you complain about so many little things, of course he argues with you.  But you know, you guys were doing pretty good up until that uh, thing with the music lately."

Leonard frowned down at his textbook.  He hadn't taken a single note in a half hour and hadn't gotten nearly as far into his homework as he intended.  Normally they did their intro to microbiology together and breezed through it, but he was clearly holding Jim back this time.  Not that his friend needed much of an excuse to stray off topic for a while.  Jim was always good for that, just like Leonard was good for getting him back on track.

"Notes," he said, poking the text with his pen.  Jim looked like he might protest for a second, but with a shrug, he returned to their assignment.

\----

“So you guys are dating?” Jim tried the next day, this time reserving the smirk for later and pushing his glasses up to get a clearer picture of Spock.  

“That has nothing to do with this equation,” came the stiff, annoyed reply.  At least Bones had given him a straight out answer, even if it had been something of a lie.  Mostly to himself, so Jim didn’t hold that against him.

“What about the equation that ends with you getting laid?” he pressed and smirked, though only slightly.

“I realize you have taken a personal interest in the happening of my bed, however, I remind you that it is in fact none of your concern, Jim,” Spock said.  He lowered his eyes back down to the homework in front of them, but his pencil remained poised above the paper, not scratching out answers.  

“So that’s a yes?” Jim asked.

“I don’t believe we discussed the topic,” Spock said.  “What formula did you apply to the last question on page one hundred and sixty?”

“You didn’t talk about making out on the floor of your dorm?” Jim ignored the deflection.

Spock hesitated, unreadable and stilted with his eyes still downcast.  Jim held his breath in anticipation of the answer.  After his conversation with Bones, he figured that this was the case with his two best friends.  They had buried themselves deep in denial-- and Jim was certainly the person with the shovel to dig them out.  

“It’s difficult to have a conversation regarding such a thing when our mouths are occupied, isn’t it?” Spock said dryly.  It made Jim bark out a short laugh, because Spock often came off as too severe for most people to stomach, but his sense of humor popped up from time to time.  

“Well, what about after?  Are you guys just sitting there with your backs to each other like usual?  Studying?” Jim said.  It seemed completely illogical, and he saved that little observation to toss at Spock when he gave him a fuller picture.  

“We… did study,” Spock said.  Jim swore he actually sounded embarrassed.  He certainly looked a degree more peeved than normal, his rigid posture so straight and tight he had to be uncomfortable.  “As usual.”

“Oh, Spock, no, no, no, my friend,” Jim cooed.  “Listen, we’re gonna fix this.  I happen to know the way to Bones’ heart.  He's a romantic guy, southern gentleman type.”  He paused for a moment, hoping for a reaction and not receiving an outward one.  “You do want that, right?  I mean… you don’t wanna just forget it ever happened… right?”

"That would be... difficult," Spock said and sounded hurt at the idea.  

"Don't worry," Jim replied.  "He can't forget about it either."

\----

Leonard sighed, fumbling with his keys to let himself into the room.  He almost hated late classes as much as morning classes sometimes, though he doubted even this seminar could push him that far.  It just meant missing dinner hours in the dining hall nearby.  He huffed as he considered the easy mac and popcorn he kept for nights like this.  Maybe he’d walk over to the sandwich shop off campus, open twenty-four hours for the convenience of suffering students like himself.  

First, he'd drop off his books and change, maybe text Jim, who could always eat something, lord knew where he put it.  Leonard froze, however, as he took in the sight that greeted him in his room, and promptly decided Jim was the last person to text.

"Hello," Spock said awkwardly, though Leonard wouldn't have quite called it nervously.  His roommate was too composed for that.

"Hi," he replied.  "What's uh, what's all this?"

The table cloth was probably a bed sheet and the table itself looked stolen from the patio at the student union.  The votive candle was electric and flickering pathetically with its attempt at imitation.  But the food looked good.

"I have given the shift in our acquaintance a good deal of consideration," Spock began, straight and formal, hands clasped behind his back.  "Your class prevents you from eating at a regular hour tonight."

Leonard couldn't help the half-chuckle that escaped him.

"Yeah, I do," he said, shuffling his books onto his desk.  In a couple strides, he closed the distance between them, to where Spock was still waiting for an answer to his unspoken question.  Leonard smiled lopsidedly and gave in, pressing a soft, unassuming kiss to his roommate's lips.  "S'nice, Spock.  Let's eat."

\----

"So?" Jim asked the next day, dismounting his skateboard with only a slight wobble as he rolled up to them outside the physics building.

"So we're dating," Leonard mumbled, his leg pressed to Spock's on the bench.  

  
  



End file.
